MURDER MYSTERY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 15, 19 January 1932, Page 15

MURDER MYSTERY.

VITAL LINK IN EVIDENCE. HAMILTON DENTIST GOES TO PERTH. DENTAL PLATE IDENTIFIED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, Monday. How, after fifteen months, a murder mystery in Western Australia may have been solved was revealed in Hamilton to-day, following on an announcement that Mr. A. W. Sims, a, local dentist, will leave for Perth on Thursday. Mr. Sims, has been subpoenaed to give evidence at Ihe trial shortly of a man, who has been charged with murder in connection with tho affair. About fifteen months after a. man's charred remains were discovered on a sheep station at Mount Magnet, 130 miles from Perth, the identity of llie person was established. Hp. was, it is stated, Leslie Brown, a married man with two children, well known here, who had left Hamilton for Australia in .January, 1930. Alongside the ashes, found near the end of May, 1930, were several personal belongings, including a watch, a denture, and a gun. For months the West Australia police endeavoured to discover the man's identity without avail, and (he ease was relegated to the pigeon-hole of unsolved crimes. Letters Did Not Come. Fresh inquiries were net afoot last year by the non-arrival in New Zealand of an expected. letter. When Brown left the Dominion he gave an undertaking to write to a friend every month. Letters came to hand regularly for some time, and were then returned through the dead-letter office. Concerned over Brown's welfare, his former companion communicated with the police in West Australia, asking if they knew of his whereabouts. Information in the hands of the police there brought out the fact that a man corresponding to the description of Brown was missing. Also, in the. posses* sion of (lie police, were the articles found among the charred remains, many months before. Some of these, articles, watches, rings and photographs, were forwarded to his friends and former associates in. Hamilton and Auckland, and the police stated that they were able to establish the fact that the charred remains were those of Leslie Brown, formerly of Hamilton. Denture Identified. Jlr. Sims enters the story through having made a denture for Brown, and his evidence testifying that the denture found with the, body at Mount Magnet is similar, to the one ho made will, it is said, be the final link in the ca.so for the police. When in Hamilton Brown worked as a baker's assistant for Mr. R. A. Grigg, and then occupied two confectionery shops. He had been separated from his wife, and his two children are. now said to be in the care of an institution. His parents are residing in Gisborne. According to a former friend, Brown possessed si certain amount of money, and robbery, it was stated, was the motive for the crime. Rome time ago the West Australian policc arrested a man and charged him with murder, and it is at this trial, commencing in a week or two, that Mr. Sims will give evidence.